Ubuntu users, rejoice! You'll no longer have to use unofficial desktop apps or try other workarounds to watch Netflix, as Canonical has announced that Ubuntu now officially supports watching the popular video streaming service.
Assuming that you are running up-to-date installations of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, or later, all you need is Chrome version 37. Once done, just head to Netflix's website through Google's web browser, and you can start streaming videos – provided you're a paying subscriber, obviously.
Previously, users had to either install a WINE-based application like Netflix Desktop, or tweak the user agent string in Chrome to disguise it as Internet Explorer, in order to access Netflix. Reason being, Netflix uses HTML5 and a technology called Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), which in turn is dependent on a set of libraries called Network Security Services, something that Ubuntu hadn't included prior to 12.04 and 14.04.
Aside from Ubuntu, Fedora has also announced Netflix streaming support, and TechCrunch is reporting that it works on Ubuntu-based Mint, too. As for web browsers, the feature is available only on Chrome for now, although it shouldn't be long before it comes to Firefox, as Mozilla is already working to add EME support in a future version of the web browser.